Jeanine Gordon

Jeanine Gordon was appointed as Special Assistant to the President for Native American Outreach in April of 2023. She is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) and has worked in private education, in public education, management and administrative roles in Tribal Government and management and administration roles in business and higher education throughout her career. Jeanine earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of Phoenix.

Jeanine is an advocate higher education for American Indian students and is passionate about creating a campus where every Indigenous student feels welcome and can successfully work toward education and life and/or career goals. In her first couple of years at Whitman College, Jeanine has taken leadership of the Memorandum of Agreement between Whitman College and the CTUIR and the Pášx̣apa Advisory Council for CTUIR Collaboration. She also developed and leads a Pášx̣apa Powwow Committee, a First Foods Festival Committee, and a Pášx̣apa Elders Advisory Council for Education. Jeanine has initiated and integrated many programmatic changes that have enhanced the outreach, recruitment and retention, and presence of Native American culture at the College and in the campus community.

Her work is important to advancing the initiatives of the MOA and the college’s strategic planning, supporting collaborative work with the CTUIR and other Tribes of the region, strengthening relationships with the CTUIR and other Tribes of the region, and enhancing the depth of experience and learning that the college has to offer to its students, local communities, and the world.